The Central committee has chosen Gothapatna for IIM Bhubaneswar and has recommended the location on the outskirts of the Odisha state capital in its report to the Union HRD ministry. Gothapatna, located adjacent to the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), is around 15 km from the city airport and 12 km from the nearest railway station. A hospital is also located nearby. This site is the most favoured one as IIM’s transit campus will be located on the IIIT premises located nearby, official sources said.

The site selection committee comprising Amarjit Sinha, additional secretary of Union human resources development (HRD) ministry and Saibal Chattopadhyay, director of IIM Kolkata, visited both the sites – Gothapatna (79.4 acres of land) under Bhubaneswar Tahasil and Haridamada (114 acres of land) under Jatani Tahasil – after discussing with Gokul Chandra Pati, chief secretary of Odisha, on Wednesday morning. Amarjit Sinha, who was heading the committee, informed that construction of boundary wall will begin soon after the selection of the final location.

“For this the central government has already sanctioned Rs 2 crore. We have also discussed and urged the BDA and IDCO authorities to construct a 100 feet wide road in the area. BDA and IDCO have also started their process for construction of roads,” he added. With the recommendation of the Central committee for commencement of classes for IIM Bhubaneswar from July this year, it is hoped that the HRD ministry would take a decision on the approval of the location for the institute at the earliest.